Not by any definition I'm familiar with. Lying is not telling the truth when you *know* it's not the truth. Neither the people who accuse Trump of being a racist, not the people who believe the moon
Language is far subtler than that, with lots of nuance contained in many turns of phrase. Trump has repeatedly used phrases that are strongly associated with racism in the experience of people of color. Those phrases are part of the English language too, and they convey more than the superficial meaning of the words. It's virtually inevitable that reporters on the left would latch onto those phrases and dismiss Trump's attempts to explain them away as rationalizations or outright dishonesty.
I'm certainly not saying they're right, I'm saying that Trump is partly to blame for the misunderstanding because he's insensitive to those nuances, or doesn't care enough to filter his choice of words so that they don't trigger people's racial sensitivities. Part of being a good communicator is choosing your words carefully, and that's just not one of Trump's strengths.
Oh, I realize you NEED to pretend this to find sleep at night, but it is utter bullshit, babbled expressly because you think you can get away with such nonsense because you're gay and liberal.
The communist party (democrats) LOVE to lie about everything President says, doesn't say, does, doesn't do, thinks, or they think they can project onto him. It's nothing but lies and liars pretending they don't know the lies their engaged in, and you do yourself a severe disservice projecting their lies about this.